Valkyrie's Song
by Stormdragonrider
Summary: "The Valkyries are those who render judgment upon the mortal man. They are the supreme warriors, beings who embody the qualities of valor and skill in battle." A companion story to Valka's Apprentice, details within the first chapter.
1. Prologue: Knife in the Dark

**Hello everyone, it is me again! I hope life has been awesome!  
This writing inspiration is carrying back into writing on here, and so, of course, here I am. Instead of trying to pick back on something I left off right away, I decided to start a fresh story, exploring something I wanted to explore a while back.  
My original story, Valka's apprentice, was my first real fanfiction story I was able to write and complete, and the alternate universe I created with it has left plenty of things in the gaps I always wanted to explore. nd so, getting back into my writing phase, I will go back to writing about my favorite character, Astrid, and diving to a spot we never got to explore fully in Valka's Apprentice.  
This story is going to take place in the time gap between Act 1 and 2 in Valka's apprentice, exploring the emergence of her alternate ego, the Valkirye, her relationship to Valka as more of a mother figure, and a bit more of a peek at what Astrid's life in the Dragon Sanctuary was like in the time she grew from a child to a young woman.  
As you've probably guessed by this rant, this story is meant to be a part of "Valka's Apprentice," and so this story will make more sense if you read that story first, or at least the first ten chapters of that story.  
Well, I've kept you long enough, so without further ado, let us begin**

* * *

_"It is the nature of greedy men to desire more, no matter how much they have. And when they have taken all they can from the land, they begin to take from each other."_

-Unknown

* * *

Astrid moved her hand along the soft grooves of the wood, fingers sweeping back and over as she searched for her next handhold. She worked slowly, making sure to miss no detail, for hanging fifty feet above the ground while trying to find a handhold in the dark was not an experience she wished to prolong.

Especially since this was not one of the few times, there would be no dragon there to catch her if she fell.

Astrid banished that unsettling thought from her mind as the fingers of her left hand slid into a small grove, several inches deep, and latched her hand onto that seem. Locking her fingers in place, she tested her weight a few times on that new handhold, then wiggled her right foot out of its previous hold to move it up to a new one.

She found herself wishing for the hundredth time that night that she had Stormfly with her. Her nadder could have been up and down from this stupid guard tower twenty times already, and Astrid had yet to reach the top. Hel, if Astrid had just flown on Stormfly to the top of this damn tower, they could have finished this stupid part of the mission and been home free by now. Or she could have just flown in launching fire and spines at anything and everything that looked remotely important, a strategy that worked surprisingly well in most situations. Or she could-

Astrid firmly told the complaining half of her brain to shut up. She could ill afford distraction, and she needed to focus on the task at hand. She was nearing the top of the watchtower.

The single beacon of torchlight that shone from the top of that tower that gloomy night, which draped the top of that building in a soft orange glow, a glow that flickered and spun like the surface of a pond that had just been disturbed by a pebble. Through that dancing and the faint sound of crackling and popping that broke the night air, Astrid also heard the soft thumping of booted feet as guards strolled back and forth along their appointed patrol paths.

Astrid froze as she nearly reached the top of the tower, pausing to listen. She counted out the rhythmic sets of footsteps, listened for the breathing and yawns of tired men, and watched the light of the torches that became lighter and darker as those guard's paths took them closer and further to the edge where Astrid hung.

Four guards Astrid counted mentally. No dragging of feet or yawning either, meaning they were on alert, a rare thing to find this late at night. This was going to be tough.

Astrid slowed her movements down even more as she got even closer to the top, though at least the torchlight allowed her to actually make out where she was putting her hands and feet, if only a little bit. She forced herself not to become too eager, consciously slowing her movements till she felt she was moving at a snail's pace. Inch by inch, she inched upward, until at last she found a handhold just hairsbreadths below the top.

Astrid stopped then, allowing herself to go over the plan again in her mind, visualizing herself going through all the movements, anticipating where each man would be when she hoisted herself up over the edge and took out as many as she could with that element of surprise.

Whoever was the closest to the bell at the center of the tower she would have to get first, then she would have to cut the cord connecting the alarm to the bottom of the tower. With that, done, the men stationed inside at the bottom would not be able to pull that rope and so sound the alarm throughout the fort. If Astrid was lucky, she could take out the men on the top of the tower without any of those below being alerted, and therefore getting the drop on those men as well. With all the watchmen on this side incapacitated, they would have a relatively safe route to get in and out through, at least until the next guard shift came through.

And if Astrid was right, that shift was still a few hours off.

Astrid tensed as a bearded, ugly bear of a man suddenly appear at the edge of the tower and peered out into the night, small eyes sweeping the darkness. Astrid made herself as still as a rock, hardly daring to breathe as that piercing gaze swept back and forth. Fortunately, the guard seemed more concerned with looking out to see for approaching ships than people clinging to the side of the tower. His gaze moved only left and right.

_Please don't look down, please don't look down,_ Astrid prayed silently. She considered it a blessing that her fingers were starting to go numb, given that it meant she didn't have to feel them start crapping form holding that position so long. Wouldn't that guy just _leave!? _It seemed as if he meant to pass the damn night away in that spot!

Seconds slipped by.

Astrid firmly told her aching body to go to the same place she sent her complaining mind.

Another minute, two.

Gods damn it, MOVE! Astrid silently screamed at the guard. What are you even looking for at this point?!

Finally, the guard moved off, and Astrid checked her instinctive sigh of relief. She did, however, allow her muscles to relax and flex, if only just a little bit.

Well, she knew at least one guard was moving away from where she was which meant he was facing away from her. It was now or never.

Abandoning stealth for speed, Astrid hoisted herself up over the edge of the tower.

Astrid only had a split second to take in the situation before her before throwing herself into action. Three men before her (that she could see) two of which were close to the bell. Only one was facing her direction. She had counted four earlier, which mean meant either she had miscounted or she there was one she couldn't see. Either way, not good.

That was everything Astrid had the chance to register before she had to move. Start with the one who will see you first, and the others will be delayed.

Astrid struck.

Grabbing her spear off of her back, she hurtled forwards, making sure not to slam directly into the man she was charging head-on, lest she knock him into the bell to ring it. Instead, she moved a bit to his right side, hitting him at an angle so he stumbled into the man beside him. Though that man had seen her before she struck, it had only been for a split-second before the tough spear slammed into his gut, and he hadn't prepared himself to stop from tumbling over, crashing head over heels into his comrade. The two went down in a heap.

Astrid paused only long enough to whip out her stone-bladed dagger and slash it across the connection rope hanging off the side of the bell tower, parting the rope with a clean, precise swing. She then threw herself at the second man, who had managed to get his sword out of his sheath but couldn't get it in line with the charging women enough to skewer her. Still, Astrid was forced to throw her dragon scale bracer in line with the coming sword, and even then, it deflected off at just the right angle to graze her upper arm, drawing blood.

And then Astrid crashed into the man, smashing her left fist into his gut and driving the air from his lungs.

Knowing she only had seconds to act before the other two men on the tower recovered, she grabbed her spear in both hands and swept it around and down low, cracking the wooden shaft across her opponent's knee. Had he had breath in his lungs, he would have cried out in agony, but he was still trying to get breath back into his lungs, and so all that came out was a wheezing gasp.

Astrid laid him low with a smash across the nose.

Even as one opponent fell, unconscious to the ground, Astrid spun back towards the two men she had downed earlier, who were even now getting to their feet. Another few moments and one would ring the bell. The other, if allowed to recover, would hold her off until reinforcements arrived, and she couldn't let that happen.

Grabbing a dozen small darts from a pouch on hip, she hurled them at the two men, hoping that she could get them on the skin.

She was lucky. These two were not wearing helmets, and their sleeveless tunics left their arms exposed.

Both got hit by two darts each, and almost immediately their struggles ceased, stopped by the Speed Stinger venom that had been coating all the darts.

Astrid pulled up her next charge short, though she did stumble a bit and had to do a bit of a hope to stop herself from tripping over the now prone forms of the two paralyzed men. She had charged preemptively, wanting to make sure she was able to fight, in case her trick with the darts didn't work.

Sloppy, Astrid told herself, somewhat disgusted at her handiwork. True, she had taken out three men, all visibly brawnier and probably stronger than her. True, she had done so without raising the alarm, and therefore succeeded on that portion of the mission.

But she had let her impatience get the best of her, had forced herself into a situation that made her have to beat down three of them at once before any could sound an alarm. Moreover, she'd used up her Speed Stinger Darts, and with a bit of searching, she'd only been able to recover two. The rest had either hit their targets of skittered off into the darkness.

Sloppy.

Grabbing a length of thin but sturdy rope from a small bag she was carrying on her back, Astrid bound the unconscious guard with the two paralyzed ones, then shoving rags into each of their mouths to gag them. Not as good as she might have liked, given that she was rushing, but it would have to do. She didn't plan to remain long anyways.

* * *

Astrid continued to thank good luck when she found the bottom of the guard tower empty, the pull rope to ring the bell and so sound the alarm cut and fallen in a coil at the base. She made sure the door was bolted from the inside before squeezing herself out again through one of the windows, making sure to make as little sound as possible as she left the tower behind.

She had gotten into Nar Garbor the Wicked's fort, one of the most notorious places in the Northern Ocean for dragon or Viking alike.

Now all Astrid had to do was find was find out where the maniac was housing his dragon breeding program, get all the dragons, including pregnant females, hatchlings, and eggs of the island through the escape route she created, and make enough distance between them and their pursuers to force them to stop following.

* * *

It took Astrid a little over an hour of sneaking and searching to find what she was looking for, the dens where the captured dragons were kept. She met little resistance on her path through the fort proper, ducking into the shadows whenever one of the few patrol groups or the occasional drunk passed by. It was somewhat ironic, Astrid considered, that there were so many goods and tools just left lying around in stalls or small shacks that dotted the larger fort, and it would be trivially easy to rob almost anything she wanted of these people. Weapons, food, tools, even a boat.

Just not the dragons. That was going to take a bit more effort.

The fort proper connected to a cave system that spanned the length and breadth of the island, a winding maze that could take days of wandering to map out successfully. Astrid didn't have days, and so she needed a guide to get her to the dragons, and fast.

Fortunately, she had a plan.

Pressing herself against the wall just outside the cave entrance, she slowly crept around to the mouth and moved inside, feeling her way across the wall as she listened intently for any sound of movement coming from within.

She heard none, save for the continuing crackle and pops of torches.

Perfect. Time to get to work.

* * *

**And so begins our story. I am not sure exatly how long this story will go on, but I have a good amount of it planned out already. Can't wait to watch it unfold.  
Hope you enjoy, and, as always, have a good one!  
See you all soon!**


	2. Chapter 1: Failure

**Suprise! We're getting another chapter right off the bat to start things off for this new story. Other chapters won't be spaced quite as close to each other as these two (as in, uploaded within minutes of each other) but I will try to ensure they are coming out consistently.  
Anyways, let's get going, and I hope you all enjoy!  
**

* * *

"_Children are convinced of their own invincibility because they have no grasp of what death actually is. They can see it, they can speak of it, but a child does not know it."_

_-Unknown_

* * *

Valka shivered and pulled the furs a bit tighter to ward out the chill wind that bit like a vicious beast. Even now, in the middle of an Archipelago "summer," a strong night wind was cold enough to cause frostbite for the unwary or the foolish. She had even been forced to where her itchy, heavy helmet just to block out that wind.

And through the eyeholes of that helmet, Valka stared out into the open sea, watching waiting.

Once again, Astrid was gone, and that made Valka nervous

Naturally, the reckless teenager didn't give Valka much warning of her own intentions to go out on missions. At the age of sixteen, Astrid was apparently confident in her ability to make those kinds of decisions on her own. Frankly, Valka wouldn't mind as much if the girl wasn't so blatantly reckless.

Or at _told _Valka when she was going out on her own.

Off to Valka's left, her dragon Cloudjumper let out a grumble, shifting to find a more comfortable spot.

Valka sighed. The stubborn dragon was apparently less than comfortable out there in the cold, but despite her half a dozen attempts to tell him to go get comfortable inside the nest, he wouldn't budge. If his rider was going to wait outside the nest until her adopted daughter until she came home, then so would he.

To be fair though, he'd probably see Astrid coming back long before Valka did. Or pick up her scent.

She idly reached a hand out to scratch the scales of Cloudjumper's neck.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be back soon. If it's much longer, I'll start up a fire to keep us warm."

The big dragon growled in appreciating, shifting closer to his rider for a better scratch.

"Oh shut up you big oaf." Valka replied playfully, "Seriously, I any more pampering and the other dragons will start thinking you're a hatchling who needs to be handfed."

The big dragon only rolled over onto his back and stuck his tongue out, the typical "I want a belly rub" pose.

"Hopeless" Valka muttered, but she eventually obliged him.

Even as she gave her now contented dragon a belly scratch, Valka couldn't take her eyes of the dark sky, the icy plains leading up to it, and the tiny pinpricks of light from the distant stars. She looked on for some sign of movement.

But it was Cloudjumpr how sensed the return first. Valka felt her dragon perk up, rolling back on his feet to sniff the air, then let out a high pitched warble that Valka recognized as apprehensive.

Valka shoved herself to her feet, reaching back to scoop up her staff and stand at the ready. She tried her best to flex the growing numbness out of her fingers and toes as she peered into the darkness, looking for some hint of movement.

Still, even when Cloudjumper opened his mouth to create a fire for some light, she heard them before she saw them.

Wingbeats.

They made a sound like thumping drums several different sets that beat at different pitches and various speeds. It started out as a distant tapping, but steadily grew louder, the song of many different wings overlapping each other to blend into a single drone that grew louder and louder, until...

There. A flash of red and green.

One flying shape appeared out of the darkness, emerging into the light of Cloudjumper's fire. Another followed, then two more, then more, until fourteen shapes, dragons of various sizes, had landed in a wide area around Valka and Cloudjumper. The Valka felt her own dragon shifting closer to her, growling protectively, but the new guests didn't seem in any state to take aggressive action. Indeed, they looked more like they were trying to find a place to sleep than a fight.

Valka stepped out a bit in front of Cloudjumper, eyes searching, scanning...

There! Sitting astride a snafflefang, the biggest dragon of the bunch, was the familiar blue leather armored form of Valka's adopted daughter, Astrid.

Valka let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Mindful of the newly freed dragons spread out across the icy coated beach (just because they were exhausted, doesn't mean they weren't still skittish) Valka picked her way towards the dragon Astrid was riding, sticking her staff to stand upright in a pile of snow as she walked.

Once she was close enough to talk without raising her voice, she opened her mouth to speak...

...but she let her words trail off into nothingness.

Astrid was only holding onto the dragon's back with one arm, with the other one, her right arm, held tightly to her side. Even from a distance, Valka could see the arm was twisted at a brutal angle, a degree at which Valka was pretty sure they were not supposed to blend. As Valka approached, Astrid managed to slide off the dragon, moving slowly and obviously painfully down the beast's side. She landed in the snow with a hiss of pain, standing more on one foot than two, leaning against the snafflefang's side.

Valka's walk turned into a sprint.

"Astrid, what happened?" She wanted to hug the younger girl close, but Valka didn't want to risk causing her more injuries, so she stopped just short, looking over her arms legs, head.

"I got careless," Astrid said shortly. The pain didn't seem to impede her speech. Even as Valka tried to search her over for any more injuries, she started to hobble away toward the opening in the ice that covered the island, the entrance to the Dragon Sanctuary.

But Valka was having none of that. Obviously, whatever wound Astrid had on her leg was making walking a painful experience, but the stubborn girl tried to continue on anyways.

"Astrid, wait." Valka placed a hand on Astrid's shoulder, holding her from taking another agonizing step. "You shouldn't be walking around like this. I'll have Cloudjumper carry us, ok?"

"I'm fine Auntie. Let me go" The stubborn girl tried to shake the hand off of her shoulder, but that was a tricky task when she currently only had one good arm.

Valka wouldn't hear it. Yes, she had plenty to say to the reckless, headstrong teenager, but that could all wait. Right now, it was a matter of making sure any of her injuries were not too severe.

Then the two were going to have to have a chat.

* * *

After Valka eventually threatened to throw Astrid over her shoulder and carry her lick a sack of potatoes, the girl finally agreed to have some help getting back into the sanctuary and her tiny room in a cave on the far southern side. Granted, injured as she was, she'd not have much of a choice if her adopted mother _did _decide to carry her in such a humiliating manner, but as it was, Valka merely helped climb onto Cloudjumper's back as painlessly as possible before launching off toward the nest. Astrid made a vague protest before they shot off, telling Valka to see to the newly rescued dragons she had brought with her, but once again, the older woman was hearing none of it. Tired they might be, but none of them were severely injured, as far as she had been able to tell. Certainly none that required the same kind of immediate attention Astrid did.

Even in the middle of the night, the inside of the Dragon Sanctuary wasn't completely dark. The light of the stars and the moon were collected and refracted through the icy exterior, bouncing back and forth through the crystalline walls to shoot into the nest, illuminating it with a soft, silvery glow. It was far from bright, but it was enough to navigate through, though certainly with some difficulty. Gliding as they were on Cloudjumper's back they didn't have to worry about stepping on any of the sleeping forms.

They touched down just outside the cave that served as Astrid's room within the nest, an opening leading to a semi-private room large enough for both her and her dragon, the Deadly Nadder Stormfly.

Valka slid off of Cloudjumper's back first, putting trying to get into a spot to help Astrid down onto the ground without putting too much on her injured leg, but once again the spirited girl was trying to take matters into her own hands. Valka barely had a chance to turn around before Astrid was trying to slide off of Cloudjumper's back on her own, using her good arm to control her descent.

_Stubborn girl, _Valka thought, even as she moved to catch the girl when she stumbled on her bad leg.

A familiar squawk sounded from the room as soon as Astrid, hobbling towards the room with Valka's support, got to the mouth of the little cave, and before the two of them could get through that entryway, they found their path blocked by Astrid's concerned dragon.

The young, light blue nadder leaned over to inspect her rider with beady eyes, eyes that went quickly from joy at the reunion to concern at her rider's injuries. The dragon emerged from the tunnel, growing in apprehension as she sniffed up and down her rider's body, seeming determined to find every single tiny scrap and scratch.

"Hey, girl..." Astrid cooed, a faint smile spreading over her lips "... guess I owe you an apology for going out for fun without you, eh? Well, guess I got what was comin' to me..."

Stormfly only nuzzled her rider gently, then stood close in behind her, guiding her and Valka into Astrid's small room.

The room was sparsely furnished. A small bed in one corner, really just a collection of furs over a raised slab of rock, and a larger section of now scorched ground that Stormfly liked to sleep on made up the almost everything in the room. Upon adjusting to the darkness, Valka was also able to spot a small, neat pile of extra (well worn) clothes in the far corner, just behind the bed.

Valka helped Astrid gently wobble her way over to the bed, slowly lowering to take a seat on the side of the messy bed.

"Thanks Auntie," Astrid whispered, and Valka saw her wince as she tried to flex her injured shoulder. Reaching over with her good arm, Astrid began to pull off the outer shell of her armor that was covering that arm, starting at the shoulder and moving down to the bracer, glove, and sleeve.

Valka swallowed. She'd never really gotten over her instinctive revulsion for gruesome injuries, but she'd learn to put on a strong face for whomever she was trying to help deal with such an injury (many of which were dragons).

"Where does it hurt?" Valka asked. It felt like sort of a weak question to ask, but there wasn't much else to say at that point.

"It's not bad" Astrid replied, her words ending in a hiss as she finally managed to tug off her right glove to reveal her forearm, already blackened with a massive bruise. The unnatural bend in the arm surely looked brutal, but there was no apparent bleeding to be seen "This is the worst of it. I also twisted my ankle on the way out."

Valka let out a sign of relief. The injury on her arm looked bad, but on closer inspection is seemed as though the elbow was dislocated rather than the arm being broken. Astrid's foot wasn't as bad, with nothing more than a sprain that would ache for days afterword. Thankfully, Valka noted, there didn't appear to be any permanent damage.

"You won't be running off for any more surprise missions on your own." Valka mumbled "_Right?"_

"I only got fourteen free out of more than a hundred," Astrid replied, hooking and peeling off her chest plate, leaving her covered by a thin, sweat-stained shirt "and now security's only going to be worse when I head back. I'd say the work's far from done."

"It's done for you, young lady. At least for a while." Valka state, taking on the 'mom is boss' tone that she had perfected over the years. Well, "perfected" until Astrid had hit this latest rebellious streak at least. "I don't suppose you noticed, but Stormfly's wing still hasn't healed from your last little outing a week ago... which reminds me. How did you get to the fort in the first place?"

"I hitched a ride."

"With who?"

"Doesn't matter."

Valka stiffened, even as Astrid finally finished pulling off her last piece of armor and tossing it into one corner of the cave, her good hand rubbing her injured arm. The girl wasn't in the best mood, but over the past several months she'd been more and more... difficult.

"Excuse me?"

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it; it's not like I gave away the location to anyone or ...anything."

"Astrid, this-"

"Auntie, I've had a really long day. Mind if we talk in the morning?"

Valka was quickly losing patience with the girl's attitude, but it definitely was getting late, and Valka didn't have the energy to continue an argument like this right at the moment either. Still, even if she had to leave it now, Valka was going to get the last word.

"You'd better believe we're going to talk about it in the morning Astrid. Also, you're grounded until I say so."

Astrid's only response was fall back into the bed and roll over to face away from her adopted mother.

* * *

"Gods above, that girl is going to be the death of me."

Despite her weariness, Valka took the long way back to her own room within the sanctuary, forcing herself to think as she walked, replaying the conversation in her head, over and over, wondering if there was something better, she could have said, wondering if she should have insisted on continuing. What would she say more tomorrow that she hadn't already sa-?

Abruptly, Valka remembered the dragons Astrid had escorted back to the nest, and with a sigh, altered her course again toward the main entrance.

Guess she'd have lots of time to think about what to say tomorrow while she was getting them settled in.

* * *

**Astrid's getting a bit rrebelliousin her teenage years. Can't wait to continue!  
Anyways, thank you all for reading, and as always, have a good one!**


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